Mahalaya

Mahalaya is a special day for anybody who has stayed in Kolkata. One can’t forget the days when one woke up at 4am and switched on the radio, to listen to the special programme aired by AIR, known as “Mahisasur Mardini”. The audio-montage (chanting of Vedic verses - chandipath, devotional songs and music), narrated by the unforgettable Birendrakrishna Bhadra and was scripted by Bani Kumar. The music was composed by Pankaj Mullick and the songs were sung by Hemanta Kumar and Arati Mukherjee besides others. Though many who were part of the original rendition are not alive, AIR till date plays the original recording which was recorded in the early 1930s, and goes on for 2 hours creating magic as the sun announces the dawn.

Mahalaya is the last day of the Pitru Paksha and is also observed as the final day to conduct the shraadh ceremony if one has missed any of the dates during the preceding fortnight. Bengalis take a dip in the holy Ganga and some even perform torpon for their departed relatives. Mahalaya also heralds the festive period. With the Pitru Paksha over, it announces the Devi Paksha where Devi Durga is invoked with “jago tumi jago” which is an invitation for the goddess to come to earth.

According to mythology, on Mahalaya day, Goddess Durga was delegated the task to eliminate the mighty Asura king called Mahisasura – the buffalo demon. As per a myth, Lord Shiva had granted him a boon that no man or deity would ever kill him. Having acquired the boon, he went on a rampage and even evicted the gods out of the heavens. When all the gods went to the Holy Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, they collectively created an energy – Shakti in the form of Devi Durga, who fought waged a nine day battle and finally vanquished the mighty Asura, and thus also came to be known as Mahisasur Maridni – the slayer of the Mahisasura.

According to another myth, this was also the day Lord Ram performed Durga Puja before he embarked on the war with Ravana. Prior to this, Durga Puja was always performed in Spring time, and was thus known as Basanti Puja (Basanta for spring). But Lord Ram performed this untimely practice, thus giving it the name of Akal Bodhon – Akal meaning ‘untimely’ and Bodhon meaning ‘worship’!

Though Mahalaya falls on the final day of Pitru Paksha and has its own sanctity of the day, the day also heralds the beginning of all the festivities that is celebrated with full pomp and gaiety – as any person from Kolakata, and s/he would vouch for this!

Protector of gods!

In the aftermath of the Ayodhya verdict last week, I came across a review of a book by Ramchandra Gandhi, from which I have taken the following –

Swami Vivekananda had gone to Kashmir towards the end of his life; anguished over the invader's desecration and destruction of countless images of Hindu Gods and Goddesses. Filled with rage and agony in his heart, he approached the Divine Mother in a Kali temple. On the swami's own testimony, Kali is reported to have said: "What is it to you, Vivekananda, if the invader breaks my images. Do you protect me, or do I protect you?"

At times I wonder if we need upholders of religion and our representatives in the Parliament to ‘take care’ of our gods. Should they rather not take care of us, instead of take from us, which they do so shamelessly?

Gods and Demons

Did you know that as per the Indian mythology, the gods and the demons were related?


Let’s go thru the lineage of the gods and the demons.

Sage Kashyap was the son of Marichi who was one of the sons (Manas-putra) of Lord Brahma. Kashyap was considered to be the father of all. He was married to thirteen daughters of Prajapati, two of which were Diti and Aditi.

Aditi was blessed with children who went on to be known as Aditya’s, the deva’s or the gods. She was also the mother of Indra, who was the king of all gods. Seeing her children, Diti too demanded the company of Kashyap, so that she too could gain motherhood. Kashyap agreed to her request, but asked her to wait for an hour, as the hour was considered to be inauspicious for venturing onto the path of motherhood. But Diti who had been overcome with lust and desire, could not wait and insisted his company immediately, and tugged at his garments, a sign of violation of modesty. Since Diti was overcome with impure thoughts and loaded with lust, she gave birth to two sons who would go on violate all civilised and ethical norms. These sons were Hiranyakashipu and Hiranyayaksha, considered to the predecessors of the Asura's. Though the deva’s and the asura’s were brothers, they never got along with each other ever.

A demon would be a very poor connotation for asura. The simplest form of description could be that the asura’s were just not deva’s or gods. Asura’s were powerful beings who were in constant conflict with the gods/deva’s. Some of them did have evil natures as opposed to the gods, but they were not the incarnation of evil. However, during the Puranic times, these asura’s were painted as demons, but this could be seen more as an effort to highlight the achievements of the gods. One could also see this as an effort by the early thinkers to attribute all ‘bad’ qualities in the asura’s, primarily to differentiate them from the ‘good’ gods and also to tell mankind in general that all such qualities attribute to the asura’s were not to be aspired for or to stay away from.

Sage Kashyap was considered to be the father of all – gods, asura’s, the nagas and the mankind. His sons were the predecessors of the well known Suryavanshi (Solar dynasty) kings and the Raghuvanshi (Lunar dynasty) kings. He fathered the Nagas (the serpents) from his wife, Kadru. Apsaras were born from his wife Muni.

Thus we see that Sage Kashyap was the father of all, the inhabitants of all the three worlds – earth, heaven and the netherworld.

Peacock – the epitome of Vanity

Ever wondered why a peacock is considered the epitome of vanity? Why is it considered to be so arrogant? Well the answer lies in a Greek myth.

 Hera, the queen of Zeus, the King of all gods was considered to be a jealous woman. Hera had her reasons to be jealous, as Zeus’ instances of infidelity were of mythical proportions, and not just with goddesses and nymphs, but with mortals too!

 Once Hera looked down from the heavens to see a cloud where there shouldn’t be any. She immediately smelled a rat and rushed down to see thru the cloud. When she saw thru the cloud, it was indeed Zeus but with a little white cow. Zeus who had sensed Hera’s arrival had converted his new bride Lo, into a little cow, to avoid trouble. Hera didn’t quite trust Zeus and requested that she have the cow for herself. Zeus, who used to dread the tempers of Hera, couldn’t deny it and so gave Lo to her.


Hera tied the cow to a tree and sent her most trusted servant Argus, to keep a watch on the cow. Now Argus had a hundred bright eyes all over his body, so that at any point of time, some of his eyes were always open and nothing missed his sight! Very soon poor Lo was beginning to get tired being on her four legs and having to eat grass and being watched by Argus.
Seeing her mournful state, Zeus sent his son Hermes, the craftiest of all gods, to bail out Lo. Hermes disguised as a shepherd went and sat next to Argus, started playing his flute. Soon after, he started telling a dull and boring story to Argus, which never had a beginning or an end. The dull story lulled Argus’s fifty eyes to sleep. Hermes went on till his other fifty eyes too went off to sleep. Hermes then touched the hundred eyes with his magic wand and sent Argus to an eternal sleep. Argus was literally ‘bored to death’.

To ensure that Hera’s faithful servant be never forgotten, she put his hundred bright eyes on her favourite bird, the peacock. Since then, the peacock has eyes all over her, which though could not see, but were bright and beautiful! The peacock which was already feeling the chosen one as she was Hera’s favourite bird, now was all the more arrogant and thus came to be known as the epitome of arrogance, thanks to the new found beauty, but not of its own doing!

The Meaning of the Myth of Ahalya

The myth of Ahalya has generated enough controversy both in the feminist world as well as against the so-called Aryan-supremacy. But can we scratch the veneer of myth and see if it has any other meaning?

According to the myth from Ramayana, Ahalya was very beautiful and also the wife of the sage Gautama. She was seduced by Indra through trickery, and was later cursed by the sage to become a stone (a woman who cannot understand the difference between her husband and another man, even in the dark, is no better than a stone!). Needless to say, Indra too was punished, but let’s leave his punishment for the time being.

The myth goes on to the period when Ram is passing by and Ahalya is redeemed by the touch of Ram’s foot, and gets united with her husband, sage Gautama.

How insulting for a woman who was not quite at fault and how chauvinistic of the man to redeem a woman by the touch of his foot! I’ll leave one paragraph for my feminist friends to fill up!!

Let us analyse this myth –

When we break-up the word Ahalyā, अहल्या, it has three components

A – hal – ya

Hal stands for ‘plough’, hal-ya stands for ‘plough-able’ and thus a-hal-ya stands for ‘un-plough able’.

A deep study of the myth can be understood as follows –

Ahalya could be a tract of land or a region which was considered to be barren. As part of Ram’s socio-economic reforms, during his passage, he could have been responsible for teaching the residents a method of cultivation, unknown to them till then. The barren (stone) land thus becomes fertile (alive woman) by stepping (touching by foot) of Rama on the land.

Again some might ask, as to why the imagery of a woman? Well the earth has always been associated with the feminine principle across all cultures, so that’s not out of place.

Needless to add here that Ram in the entire Ramayana has been seen as someone who stands for the downtrodden, like Sabari, aborigine tribes better known as the Baali’s, Sugriv’s and the Vanara’s of Ramayana, etc. The myth of Ahalya could be another such act.

Pic Courtesy - commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ahalya_rama.jpg